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Lisa Yoo

The Sheet Metal RFQ Checklist: 10 Ways to Get Faster, More Accurate Quotes

Anyone who works in purchasing knows how quickly a sheet metal RFQ can turn into a chain of follow-up questions. One vendor needs a missing drawing, another asks for a 3D file, and someone else wants to know whether the annual volume will be released all at once, monthly, or in smaller production runs. Before long, you’re tracking down answers from engineering, forwarding updates to multiple vendors, and trying to keep the quote timeline from slipping.

That kind of back-and-forth usually doesn’t happen because someone dropped the ball. Buyers are often working with parts they didn’t design, files they may not control, and deadlines they didn’t set. But the more complete and organized the RFQ package is from the start, the easier it is for your sheet metal fabrication partner to understand the scope, ask better questions, and return a quote that reflects the real project.

At Nu-Way Industries, we assembled this checklist to make that process easier. It outlines the information that gives sheet metal fabricators a clearer picture of the project, helping buyers reduce back-and-forth, compare quotes more confidently, and avoid eleventh-hour surprises.

What to Include in Your Sheet Metal RFQ Package

Not every RFQ will require every item below, and not every buyer will have access to all of this information. And that’s okay. Nu-Way can and does quote projects with less information, but the more detail that’s available up front, the easier it is for us to improve the quality and speed of the quote. The goal here isn’t to spend time creating the perfect RFQ package, but rather to know what to aim for and who to loop in when something’s missing. Here are 10 things that, in our experience, can make the biggest difference in how fast and accurately a sheet metal fabrication partner can quote your project. 

#1: Include 3D CAD Files and PDF Drawings

3D files increase quoting speed. When an estimator can load a model directly, they can spend less time interpreting flat drawings or manually working through dimensions and bend calculations from scratch. That difference adds up quickly, especially on weldments and multi-component assemblies, where the geometry becomes more complex.

We recommend including 3D CAD files for everything when possible, along with PDF drawings for all levels of the assembly, not just the top-level drawing. The model helps the estimator understand the geometry and fitup, while the drawings provide important details such as tolerances, notes, finishes, revisions, and component-level requirements. And if you don’t have access to the CAD files yourself, it’s worth finding out who in your organization does, so they can be included with the package or made available to the vendor if needed.

#2: Provide a Digital Bill of Materials 

A structured bill of materials (we recommend an Excel spreadsheet) helps the vendor understand the full scope of what you need quoted, especially on complex assemblies with multiple subcomponents. Without a clear BOM, your manufacturing partner has to piece together the project scope from the drawings alone. This can slow the RFQ process down and increase the chances of something being missed or misinterpreted.

#3: Clarify Material and Finishing Specifications

If your sheet metal parts have specific material requirements or require powder coating, plating, anodizing, or wet paint, it helps to include that information in the original RFQ package. These details are sometimes handled separately from the drawings, but when they’re missing from the quote package, one of two things usually happens: the vendor has to ask (which adds delay) or make an assumption (which adds risk).

#4: Share Specialty Item Sources

If the assembly includes specialty hardware, fasteners, springs, or other components that aren’t widely available, include the name of the supplier you typically use. You don’t need to share pricing, just the source. That gives your manufacturing partner a clear starting point, so they don’t have to spend time tracking down who makes a particular item (and delaying your quote).

#5: Define Release Quantities and Cadence

While estimated annual usage (EAU) is helpful because it tells your manufacturing partner the size of the opportunity for the year, most sheet metal fabricators don’t quote as if they’ll run the full annual quantity at once. Material costs are too volatile to buy a year’s worth of raw material up front, shops may not have the capacity to run that volume in a single production cycle, and chances are you don’t have the warehouse space to receive it all in one shipment anyway.

What’s especially useful for your sheet metal fabrication partner is the release quantity, meaning how many pieces you expect to order per purchase order, and the cadence, meaning how frequently those orders or shipments will occur. Without that information, the vendor has to estimate both, and the quote you get back will be based on their best guess rather than your actual plan. If you’re starting with a prototype run before scaling to full production, it’s worth flagging that up front, too, since it changes how the work is scheduled and priced.

#6: Include an Engineering Point of Contact

When technical questions come up during the quoting process, the fastest path to an answer is a direct line to someone on your engineering team. Including that person’s name and contact information in the RFQ package means that when your manufacturing partner has a question about a missing drawing, a critical-to-quality feature, or a tolerance called out to several decimal places, they can go straight to a technical resource instead of relaying questions back and forth through the buyer.

There’s a second benefit here, too. When the vendor understands what a part actually does and how it functions, they can quote more accurately and may be able to suggest alternative approaches that reduce cost. Without that context, they’re pricing the geometry on the drawing without knowing what matters most.

#7: Share Documentation and Quality Requirements Up Front

Here’s a scenario we’ve run into before: Nu-Way completes a quote, it looks competitive, and the buyer agrees to the lead time. Then, later in the process, the buyer mentions they’ll need a Level 3 PPAP, or Production Part Approval Process, with the first-piece submission. That kind of quality documentation requires significant administrative work and has to be factored into both the price and the timeline. It’s not something that can be pulled together at the last minute when parts are already manufactured and sitting on the shipping dock.

If your project has documentation or quality requirements, such as PPAP, first-article inspection, or certifications, it pays to include them in the sheet metal RFQ. When your fabrication partner has that information from the start, the quote reflects the full scope of the work, and nobody is scrambling at the end to catch up.

#8: Ask About In-House Capabilities

Before sending your RFQ to a list of vendors, it’s worth asking a simple question: do they have the manufacturing and finishing capabilities your project requires in-house, or will they need to subcontract part of the work? The answer can have a direct impact on both pricing and lead time for sheet metal parts. A vendor who has to send parts out for plating or another secondary process may need more time, and that outside processing can also affect the final price.

When that information surfaces in the quote rather than before it, the buyer may have already spent weeks waiting on a response that was never going to be the right fit. Asking the question early gives vendors who can’t meet the requirements a chance to say so up front, and it helps the buyer avoid spending time on quotes that won’t work.

#9: Consider Sharing a Target Price

Target pricing isn’t always straightforward, and we understand why buyers can be hesitant to share it. After all, it can feel like showing your hand, especially if you’re worried a vendor will build their quote around that number instead of giving you their most competitive price. It can also create a practical challenge if too many vendors decide the target isn’t a fit, and you still need to collect a certain number of bids.

But here’s what we see from the quoting side: without a target price, a fabricator can spend days putting together a detailed quote for a complex assembly, only to find out the number was never close. An experienced estimator can often look at a target and know within minutes whether the raw material cost alone makes the project a non-starter. That kind of early clarity saves time for everyone involved.

Think of it like a job posting with no salary range. You probably wouldn’t invest the time to apply without some idea of whether the compensation was in the right ballpark. Target pricing gives your fabrication partner the same kind of context. Even a general range can be enough to determine whether it makes sense to invest the time in a full quote.

#10: Aim for Realistic Quote Deadlines

We know there’s often pressure on the procurement side to get quotes back quickly, and we understand that timelines aren’t always yours to set. But when a large or complex sheet metal RFQ comes in with a turnaround time of a day or two, many fabricators won’t be able to review it thoroughly enough to return a confident, accurate quote. Some may pass on the opportunity entirely.

If the goal is to get responses that are thorough, competitive, and easy to compare, a timeline that reflects the scope of the RFQ can make a meaningful difference.

Better RFQs Make Better Quotes

It’s easy to look at a list like this and think it adds steps to an already busy process. But the alternative is often more time spent fielding the same clarifying questions from multiple vendors, chasing down specs and drawings after the fact, and trying to compare quotes that were each built on different assumptions.

When the RFQ package is more complete from the start, everyone spends less time filling in the blanks later. Your fabrication partner can quote around the real scope of the project, and you get responses that are easier to compare, easier to trust, and less likely to come with surprises.

Ready to put this checklist to work? Get in touch with the Nu-Way team to request a quote or talk through your next project.

How Steve Elliott Is Helping Nu-Way Build Systems That Scale

Nu-Way Industries had previously tried to migrate from its legacy Meridian file management system to SolidWorks PDM. The earlier attempts had failed, as the challenge was bigger than switching software. Engineering records had to be migrated, data structures mapped, and workflows, user permissions, and CAD integration aligned, all without disrupting daily operations across Nu-Way’s precision sheet metal manufacturing environment. Before that was done, keeping engineering and production aligned on current revisions was a more manual process, increasing the risk that a part could be built from an outdated revision.

That changed when Steve Elliott, now Nu-Way’s Vice President of Engineering & Estimating, took ownership of the project. He led the system architecture, executed the full data migration across engineering records, and stabilized the platform after launch. The result was a reliable, scalable document management platform that remains Nu-Way’s standard today.

For Elliott, the project reflects a broader pattern across his time with the company: replacing improvisation with systems that scale.

“The better, more economical decision, and the one with the least amount of resistance, was to switch to the SolidWorks PDM vault system,” Elliott said. “Since we were already a heavy user of SolidWorks, it was an easy decision to go through with that.”

Seven years later, the impact is clear. “We’re now seven years into using it, and in the seven years that it’s been running, we’ve never had a catastrophic failure of the vault system,” he said. “It’s common use and common practice here at Nu-Way. Nobody thinks about the old system that much anymore.”

A Career Built on the Shop Floor

Elliott has spent nearly 25 years in precision sheet metal manufacturing, including 21 years at Nu-Way Industries. Over that time, his role has steadily expanded from Industrial Engineer to Industrial Engineering Manager, New Product Development Engineering Manager, and now Vice President of Engineering & Estimating.

That progression gave him a detailed view of how engineering decisions show up on the shop floor. 

“Being hands-on all these years has been the biggest teacher,” Elliott said. “I got to spend a lot more time out on the floor in the first 15 years of my career, seeing things done in fabrication firsthand. All of that has been incredibly helpful where I’m at today.”

Earlier in his career, Elliott led the setup and optimization of high-volume assembly lines, including workflow design, line balancing, tooling, fixtures, and detailed work instructions. He supported large-scale production programs such as heavy copper busbar battery rack assemblies, helping enable throughput of up to 18 units per day using properly balanced production lines and tooling.

He also established dedicated assembly cells for complex precision sheet metal programs, including stainless steel oven door production and Department of Defense (DoD)-related builds, and engineered a robotic handling system for aluminum motorcycle fuel tanks that automated the internal sealing process.

That hands-on foundation continues to shape how he leads today. He understands that scalable systems must be practical, usable, and grounded in the realities of production.

As his responsibilities have expanded, so has the nature of the work. “Now it’s about assigning the right tasks to the right people who are qualified to do those projects,” Elliott said. “Learning to delegate and trust has been another transition, and so has helping others develop where there is opportunity for them to grow.”

A Standards-First Leadership Style

In his current role, Elliott is focused on bringing more structure to the decisions that shape a job before it reaches production.

He is driving the development of standardized work across engineering and estimating, with an emphasis on improving consistency, accuracy, and scalability. That initiative includes formalizing documentation, procedures, and onboarding materials so the organization relies less on tribal knowledge and more on shared processes.

The effort also connects directly to downstream performance. Elliott is aligning engineering methods and estimating practices with cost, scheduling, production performance, and ERP execution, including improved integration with Epicor.

For those changes to hold, the people closest to the process have to be involved in shaping and maintaining them.

“I prioritize open communication with my team, ensuring managers are informed, involved, and part of the decision-making process to drive better outcomes,” Elliott said.

That approach gives standardization a practical purpose. It creates clearer ownership across the leadership team and gives the people doing the work a stake in how it gets done.

Using Technology to Strengthen the System

Elliott is also applying that systems mindset to Nu-Way’s estimating platform and internal technology. He is leading enhancements to Paperless Parts to better reflect Nu-Way’s manufacturing processes, cost structures, and quoting inputs, including faster, more accurate raw material pricing updates.

For Elliott, the value is not simply moving from paper to digital. It is about reducing ambiguity and improving the consistency of the decisions that shape cost, capacity, and competitiveness.

“With analog quoting systems, you’re really using interpretation,” Elliott said. “And with interpretation in human beings comes various answers. Paperless helps pull some of the ambiguity out of quoting.”

That clarity matters because estimating decisions affect the entire operation. A quoted rate has to be competitive, but it also has to reflect what the company can realistically produce.

“It’s forcing a revisit to core estimating functions and making sure we have a dialed-in estimating rate that remains competitive among our competitors,” Elliott said. “Everybody has a personal objective, but you have to keep the company in the front of mind. We won’t be competitive if we constantly cut rates in half.”

Similarly, Elliott is using AI-assisted code generation to support development inside Paperless Parts’ P3L scripting environment, allowing the team to iterate on system improvements more quickly and reduce reliance on external programming resources. He is also applying AI to documentation-heavy work, including SOP development, technical communication summaries, and knowledge capture across engineering and estimating.

For Elliott, the value of AI is practical because it gives teams another way to improve internal systems, capture information more efficiently, and solve problems faster without being limited by traditional technical barriers.

“I’m not a programmer. I’m an engineer,” Elliott said. “The advent of AI has been a huge lift for a non-programmer like me. It has made many things possible that I could only get done through contracted services before.”

That includes writing scripts for SolidWorks PDM automation, creating tools to help process large customer drawing packages, and modifying Paperless Parts code more efficiently.

“What really started to knock down obstacles to improving software and workflows was having AI help me understand the programming side,” Elliott said. “Now I’m building my own scripts, building my own executables, and modifying P3L code.”

Building for Scale

Looking ahead, the next stage of improvement is stronger integration across engineering, estimating, and production. That means continued investment in technology and automation, faster and more reliable quoting, better data, and more standardized processes.

It also means building an organization where teams take greater ownership and collaborate across fewer silos. After helping analyze company-wide employee feedback, Elliott has focused early efforts on documentation, training, and cross-functional understanding.

“I expect leaders and teams to take full responsibility for their work, follow through on commitments, and step up to challenges even when they fall outside their traditional roles,” he said.

The goal is a more scalable operation, with systems that support better decisions closer to the work.

If you’re looking for a precision sheet metal manufacturing partner for a new program or existing product, Nu-Way’s team is ready to help. Contact us to discuss your project needs.

Michael Westbrook: Leading with Process, Partnership, and Performance

On November 4, 2024, Nu-Way Industries began operating out of its new Elk Grove facility. The move was still in progress. Equipment hadn’t fully settled, assembly areas were unfinished, and teams were working through the disruption that comes with any relocation.

Then a customer called with an urgent, same-day parts request.

For Chief Operating Officer Michael Westbrook, that answer wasn’t complicated. The team delivered. 

Moments like this represent the baseline expectations of a reliable manufacturing operation. “First and foremost, you’ve got to deliver quality parts, and you have to deliver them on time,” Westbrook said. “Those are not requests. They’re requirements. Anything beyond that? That’s where the partnership comes in.”

This mindset of steady execution first, improvement second has defined Westbrook’s leadership throughout a year of significant transition for the company. 

Steady Leadership in Times of Change

Over the past year, Nu-Way navigated both a major facility relocation and leadership transitions following the passing of senior partner and President, Steve Southwell. Through all these changes, the priority remained clear: protect customer commitments while stabilizing internal operations. 

Westbrook’s approach was straightforward: keep communication open, remove process bottlenecks, and make sure teams had what they needed to perform. 

The results were tangible. Lead times that stretched to 10 to 12 weeks during the move were reduced to four to six weeks, with many sheet metal fabrication jobs now trending under four weeks, depending on complexity.

For Westbrook, improvements like these aren’t driven by quick fixes. They reflect a disciplined focus on understanding process flow, identifying breakdowns, and strengthening systems so performance becomes repeatable. The emphasis is always on addressing root causes rather than symptoms, a philosophy that reinforces accountability and long-term reliability. 

Built from the Shop Floor Up

Westbrook’s perspective was shaped long before the executive office.

He began working in manufacturing while still in high school and earned a degree in Industrial Engineering while working second shift as a manufacturing engineer. After graduation, he spent 17 years with another manufacturer, advancing through operations leadership roles and ultimately serving as Vice President of Operations.

When he joined Nu-Way in 2011 as Director of Operational Excellence, he brought both technical expertise and hands-on credibility. Over time, he led materials, operations, and continuous improvement initiatives before being named Chief Operating Officer.

Working across functions gave him a systems-level view of the business. “[Nu-Way’s President, Mary Howard] knew that I understood how it all connects, how it all flows,” Westbrook said. “If I understand that and put the right team in place, and we keep working on improving those flows, things will get better.”

A Process-First Leadership Style

Westbrook doesn’t describe himself as a top-down leader. Instead, he focuses on building strong teams and creating clear, repeatable processes.

Rather than dictating solutions, Westbrook empowers people closest to the work to solve problems and continuously improve. When something goes wrong, his approach is to examine the process first. “Let’s work through it. Why did this occur? Where is the process breaking down?” he said. “I always start with a process issue.”

It’s a pragmatic philosophy rooted in accountability and trust, not quick wins or short-term fixes.

Redefining the Customer Relationship

Beyond operations, Westbrook is equally focused on how Nu-Way engages with customers. He draws a clear distinction between transactional relationships and true partnerships.

“I start off conversations with existing customers and potential new ones with the desire to create partnerships,” he said. “Keep in mind there’s a big difference between a customer and a partner. A customer buys things from you. A partner is in this together with you.”

Under his leadership, Nu-Way increasingly engages earlier in the product lifecycle, collaborating with customers on design for manufacturability, cost optimization, and lead-time reduction. The goal is to contribute expertise, not simply production capacity.

Looking Ahead

As manufacturing becomes more data-driven, Westbrook is guiding investments in upgraded business systems and analytics tools that provide faster visibility into performance and enable quicker decisions.

“Businesses are run by numbers,” Westbrook said. “The better and quicker you can get to that information, the better off you’re going to be.”

It’s the same principle that has guided his career: understand the process, improve the flow, and deliver consistently.

If you’re evaluating a manufacturing partner for a new program or an existing product, Nu-Way’s team is ready to help. Contact us to discuss your project needs.